Incense Mill

Legend of the Five Rings card from Seeds of Decay

Card Type

Holding

Gold Cost

2

Card Text

w: Produce 2 Gold.
Battle/Open: Target a Personality. Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn).

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: If someone swaps their Force and Chi (via Jekku or other cards), are they considered to have a Force Bonus/Penalty, depending on whether it went up or down?
  I'm curious if the Personality's Force goes down if they are considered to have a Force Penalty that could be negated by Incense Mill.
  A: Exchanging Force and Chi involves giving one stat a bonus and the other a penalty.
  If the penalty is to the Personality's force, this can be negated by Incense Mill's action. Alex Jones, "Incense Mill vs Force Swapping", 31 Jan 2013
• Q: I give my guy some combination of +100 Force. My opponent plays Creating Order on my dude. Is this negation of the force bonuses applying a force penalty, or simply negating the bonuses.
  Eg. Can I Incense Mill my Person to gain my +100F again?
  Cheers.
  A: The negation of a bonus is not a penalty, and vice versa. Jon Palmer, "Creating Order - Force Penalty?", 7 Jan 2013
• Q: Example: An “unopposed” card is any card that is not in the opposed state, even one that could not be opposed because it’s not at a battlefield.
  Bakari has a -4f penalty while unopposed.
  Incense Mill Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn).
  May I use incense mill on Bakari to negate the -4f penalty as the Open action (seeing as he's unopposed) If so the following questions:
  1) As he's still unopposed does he regain the penalty? 2) If he becomes opposed later in a battle, and then becomes unopposed does he gain a new penalty?
  A: You may indeed negate Bakari's force penalty using Incense Mill's ability as an Open action. The penalty is negated for the rest of the turn. If he becomes opposed and then unopposed again, the penalty would normally be re-applied, but it's the same force penalty so Incense Mill continues to negate it. Alex Jones, "Bakari + Incense Mill", 25 Nov 2012
• Q: Incense Mill says: "Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn)."
  As per this ruling, I use Incense Mill as my first action during my turn, and any future occurrences of Hotako will be negated. http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100339
  I just want clarification that the force penality negation is NOT for future occurrences since the wording uses the keyword "current" (underlined above).
  Is this correct?
  A: Yes. Incense Mill will only negate current force penalties, but will negate both current and new effects "that say he may not perform actions". Alex Jones, "Incense Mill force negation", 24 Nov 2012
• Q: Hi folks,
  Following up to viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100446 (Ugulu movement) and viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100339 (Incense Mill negation)
  Just to be clear, so Reaction negation is instance-only, whereas Battle/Limited/Open negation can have blanket effects? (Unless the reaction explicitly says "negate all future.." or something to that effect)
  A: No, it depends on the trigger.
  If a triggered trait or a Reaction (noting that Ugulu has a triggered trait, not a Reaction, but the same rule applies) is triggered by an effect and negates that same effect, that's all it does. However, a Reaction that is triggered by a timing point rather than by an effect, for example "Before an Action resolves" or "After your Personality is targeted", will typically create a ongoing effect that can negate multiple effects. Alex Jones, "Ugulu and Movement Negation", 8 Nov 2012
• Q: Still confused on the ruling for Incense Mill. After reading through the rules questions here, reading the rules site, reading the rulebook, I see no clear indication of the word "say".
  Unfortunately this word is not commonly used on L5R cards, so there's not much for me to reference for other cards that use "say".
  Regardless, Incense Mill uses the following text: Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn). (emphasis mine)
  When reading Incense Mill, it clearly states that it negates cards effects that actually have a specific wording on other effects. Why do I say this? Well, it should be obvious that Incense Mill uses the word, "say". That's why I don't understand any previous ruling that I've seen outside of turning off effects from Hotako, Nikaru.
  Kitsune Denhei's snake, for example, does not anywhere "say" that 'he may not perform actions'. Sure, the snake turns off base abilities. But nowhere does that prevent him from performing actions. Regardless, the snake has an effect on a personality, but that effect is a general game limitation. Nowhere does Incense Mill state "negate effects that prevent him from performing actions". I see where the lines are drawn, I see the effort that the rules team puts forth making sense of these words, however, I really don't see how a card that uses the word "say" or "says" can be taken any other way than literally. When someone says "something", it's a quote, it's a literal word for word translation (especially in the land of games where wording is important).
  That's why I suggest that Incense Mill works differently (and only negates Hotako, Nikaru, Munemori, and Kuon's Legacy for example). In other words, because the word "say" is apart of the phrase "Negate any cards' effects that say", you could simply do a literal search on Oracle for text on cards that have printed (say), 'he may not perform actions'.
  Or is the rules team using a different definition of the word, "say"?
  A: If the text after "say" on Incense Mill were in quotes, then yes, it should be interpreted literally, and only effects that used the exact text "He may not perform actions" would be negated.
  However, Incense Mill does not use such exact wording, which means that the implied performance prevention from, for example, Denhei's Snake's action is also negated. Alex Jones, "Incense Mill clarification", 4 Nov 2012
• Q: Incense Mill: "Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn)."
  This came up recently, so if target personality A with Incense Mill during open, will any future effects (in the same turn) that targets the same personality such as Hotako xp's effect (that prevents performing) will also be negated?
  So as an open action, it creates a shield/protection effects from opponent's effects that would have prevented him from performing? Or is that wrong? whereby incense mill only negates current ability on it, but not future?
  A: Incense Mill creates two instantaneous effects. Therefore it only removes force penalties and action-preventing effects on the Personality at the time Incense Mill is used. It doesn't set up any kind of future protection, unlike a card such as Deep Roots. Jon Palmer, "Incense Mill vs Same turn non-perform restriction", 2 Nov 2012
• Q: So, as we have seen with Incense Mill, that it reactivate a personalities ability to use specific abilities, but what about being restricted from certain types of actions?
  For example, Player A plays Accidental Confession on Player B's unit. Player B uses Incense Mill on same unit, can the unit now move into battlefields?
  I know the unit will not be able to assign, since it is not an action, but specifically will it remove the restriction on performing movement actions?
  For Reference: Accidental Confession: "Open: Choose your performing unbowed Courtier, discard the Imperial Favor, and target a Personality: Dishonor him. His controller may not assign him, and he will not move, to battlefields this turn."
  Incense Mill: "Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards' effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn)."
  A: Accidental Confession does not prevent a Personality from performing actions that would move him to a battlefield; the movement simply does not happen. Incense Mill will not affect that. Jon Palmer, "Incense Mill and Accidental Confession", 30 Oct 2012
• Q: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100201&view=unread#p1321684
  Legion of Pain's trait: "Actions performed by Personalities with a Gold Cost of 7 or lower may not target this Personality. " If my opponent attacks me with a single personality with an equipped Leion of Pain, and I defend with Doji Yoshitada, who has a gold cost of 7 and has been targeted by incense mill earlier this turn, am I able to announce and perform Yoshitada's action? " Political Battle: Target an enemy Personality: Bow him. If he is dishonorable, choose a player who gains or loses 2 Honor. " Does the answer change if I want to play Steel on Steel instead of using Yoshitada's printed action?
  A: Incense Mill will only negate effects that specify the target Personality. Effects that apply to all Personalities or a group of Personalities specified by some condition will not be negated by Incense Mill. Alex Jones, "Incense Mill clarification", 25 Oct 2012
• Q: (wrt viewtopic.php?f=59&t=100201#p1321450)
  Sorry, but the rulings so far have left me totally baffled.
  Isn't this a logical deduction instead of an actual equivalence? And therefore dependent on the usual game "state" that a personality's abilities have to be performed by him? Imagine a personality comes out in the future (or in the past - I haven't exhaustively searched the Oracle) that says "This personality may perform abilities on other personalities as if they were printed on him." What happens to your alluded equivalence?
  Even establishing the previous equivalence, and further establishing that Yoshihara's effect on the Bazaar directly "translates" into "the Bazaar's action performers may not perform the Bazaar's action", Incense Mill says "Negate any cards’ effects that say he may not perform actions"... it doesn't say "Negate any cards' effect on him". Wouldn't it then negate the entire effect from Yoshihara on the Rugashi Bazaar? How come it just negates its effect on the Milled personality?
  I am not trying to discredit you Alex, but it seems to me that the equivalence you attempt to establish causes more loopholes and doubts than not establishing it. Hoping for a reversal on this one...
  A: Yes, while the initial equivalence is ok - that abilities on the Personality, or on his Items or Spells, are necessarily performed by him, so if they may not be used, he may not perform them - extending this to Rugashi Bazaar is wrong.
  So. Incense Mill will negate effects that specify that the targeted Personality may not perform actions, including effects that specify that abilities whose action he must necessarily perform may not be used. It will not negate effects that prevent abilities being performed by Personalities in general.
  Thus, if Soshi Yoshihara exp targets a Personality when using her first ability, the effect of the action will be negated by Incense Mill. If Soshi Yoshihara exp targets a Holding, Incense Mill will not negate the action's effect.
  Incense Mill will not prevent the effect of Urgency's Open action.
  Donny: Note also that Ambush creates a Battle but does not create an Attack Phase; Aramasu's Legacy creates an Attack Phase as described here, so Urgency will not apply during the attack. Alex Jones, "Incense Mill clarification", 25 Oct 2012
• Q: Following the rush of SoD questions, I wanted to ask one that our group can't come to an agreement on.
  Incense Mill obviously works against effects like Hotako, Nikaru, Hakuseki etc that say "may not perform actions". However does Incense Mill also work against effects like Denhei's Snake or Onchi that say "Base abilities may not be used"?
  Relevant text:
  Incense Mill Battle/Open: Target a Personality: Negate all current Force penalties on him. Negate any cards’ effects that say he may not perform actions (this turn).
  A: Incense Mill will negate Denhei's Snake's action's effects, but not Ninube Onchi's.
  Denhei's Snake's ability says, "His base abilities may not be used," which implies that he may not perform them; Incense Mill will negate this effect.
  However, Onchi's ability says, "Remove one of his abilities." The ability is no longer there: you can't announce an action from an ability that doesn't exist. Alex Jones, "Incense Mill clarification", 21 Oct 2012